Arrival has revealed the finished prototype of its first car, revealing some design insight in a launch video. The all-electric Arrival Car is designed specifically for the ride-hailing industry to provide the best possible experience for both drivers and passengers and bring cleaner air to urban environments where most ride-hailing occurs.

The Car joins Arrival’s Bus and Van to provide cities with the multi-modal zero-emissions transportation ecosystem to meet sustainability goals. Arrival produces its vehicles in local microfactories to create cleaner, more equitable mobility solutions for people living in cities.

The new vehicle has a focus on visibility and comfort, with legroom said to be twice as large as that of an average car of the same length. The design prioritizes cost, uptime, driver comfort, safety, and convenience—given an average ride-hail vehicle will drive 45,000-50,000 km (28,000-31,000 mi) a year, versus 12,000 km (7500 mi) for a typical vehicle.

Arrival has been able to develop the Car with ride-hailing drivers from Uber in just over six months. The timeframe and partnership to create a purpose-built vehicle are made possible because of the company’s vertical integration using technologies that are shared across its portfolio of vehicles.

“Over the past six months, we have been working closely with Uber’s drivers to create a vehicle specifically for the ride-hailing industry, and making it affordable, durable, and great to look at,” said Tom Elvidge, EVP, Vehicle Platforms, at Arrival, and former Uber exec. “Electrifying ride-hailing will play a crucial role in reducing the emissions of vehicles in cities globally, providing a sustainable, clean, multi-modal transportation system for communities.”

Arrival announced its partnership with Uber to develop an affordable, purpose-built electric vehicle (EV) for ride-hailing drivers earlier this year. The Car is being developed to address the global need to shift ride-hailing and car-sharing services over to electric to reduce emissions and improve air quality in cities. The company estimates that there are over 30 million drivers across the ride-hailing sector.

“The first reveal of the Arrival Car is an exciting moment for Uber drivers, who are switching to electric vehicles at a much faster rate than the mass market,” said Jamie Heywood, Regional General Manager for Northern and Eastern Europe at Uber. “Uber drivers have been working with Arrival to provide feedback on the design of the first purpose-built, fully electric car for the ride-hailing industry. This exciting new vehicle will support our commitment for all cars on the app in London to be fully electric by 2025, helping to drive a green recovery and clean up urban transport.”

What was shown in the launch video is the Alpha prototype, the first version of the Car—a fully working prototype, according to Elvidge. The overall footprint of the Car is the same as that of a Volkswagen Golf, but it is much bigger inside.

“One of the things that we wanted to do was to move the driver as far forward as we can in the vehicle,” he said. “This means that visibility can be radically improved versus any other car on the market. The driver position is elevated, so the sensation of visibility that you get here with this huge windscreen is phenomenal.

Moving the driver forward opened up the rear passenger compartment.

“One of the big design features that we’ve really strived for is in the back of the car…,” said Elvidge. “The passenger legroom in the back of the car is actually greater than a Rolls-Royce.”

Contributing to this bigger space is a front passenger seat that can fold down and then be moved as far forward as possible under the dashboard.

“That creates this incredible sensation of space in the back row,” he said. “The idea is to have space for legroom, cargo. If you have a small bag, you’re going to the airport, for example, you could bring the bag in and place it here (in the cabin just behind the front seats). There’s plenty of room to do that, and you don’t need to use the boot. The boot is designed to be able to accommodate two large suitcases and a couple of small ones as well.

For the driver, the design of the user interface is “super minimal. Everything that you can do you do through the [central] display,” explained Elvidge.

The climate control, Bluetooth, and phone connection are all configured through the display.

“The really interesting thing with this is there’s an opportunity with a ride-hailing company to make use of this display,” he said. “…When you start your trip, you could see the name and photograph of both the driver and the passenger and use it as a moment for connection.”

The purpose of the Alpha prototype shown is to realize the vision from the initial design. Next up, Arrival will start testing and incorporate the feedback into the next Gamma design phase, continuing to evolve the product to create the most efficient, safe, and desirable vehicle tailored specifically to this market.